IT'S A WHOLE NEW WALL GAME

Tipp skipper Maher living the dream after seeing face go up outside Sars' club house

- PAT NOLAN

IT HAD been so long since they had reason to update it, the paintwork on the famous Thurles Sarsfields mural had become rather patchy.

So, no sooner had Ronan Maher's portrait been hastily added alongside his eight clubmates as an All-Ireland-winning captain last week than it was temporarily removed as part of a bigger redecorating process.

"They're doing it all up now," he says. "The whole clubhouse has actually been painted, and they're repainting all the signs, so it'll be really cool to be walking in training now and see it." The first All-Ireland-winning captain from anywhere came from Thurles Sarsfields, with Jim Stapleton leading Tipperary to victory in the inaugural Championship of 1887.

Stapleton only took over as captain for the final victory over Galway. The skipper up to then was Denis Maher, who stepped down due to a fallout over travelling expenses for the final. Denis was Ronan's great-grandfather.

Tom Semple, after whom the stadium in Thurles is named, captained Tipp to the 1906 and '08 All-Irelands, while another Sars man, John Joe Callanan, became the first man from the county to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 1930.

Clubmate Jimmy Lanigan was the second in 1937, followed by John Maher, Ronan's grand-uncle, in 1945.

Tony Wall maintained the club tradition in 1958 and it was further embellished by Jimmy Doyle (1962 and '65) and Michael Murphy (1964).